Build Your Own Game Controller With This Tiny Gadget

Tired: tech that does one thing. Wired: Tech that can do a ton of things. Smartphones allow you to send texts and emails, to shoot 1080p video, and to throw fat birds at houses green pigs built. Why should your video game controller be any different?

SunFounder’s MagicKey is a “low-power microcontroller” that’s insanely customisable and buildable. Just pick up anything conductive (empty soda can, empty beer can (21+), and you’ll be able to turn it into a board that can control games, play music, or acts as a computer keyboard when you get too many crumbs stuck under your laptop’s “H” key. Its website suggests you even “make use of carrot peelings to create a make-shift MIDI piano.” Look, sure, why not.

You can use the buttons on board, the included alligator clips, and the pin headers as inputs, and try out all kinds of wacky functions and combos. It works with the Raspberry Pi (which we like) and its visual programming language software to change up the values of the controller’s keys however you want to use ‘em.